Tatarstan business resource "BUSINESS Online" in [...] Timur Latypov's article "Of course, the Tatars could play": there is a change of power in Tupolev again. Instead of 76-year-old Bobryshev, the young grandson of the former CEO of the Kazan Aircraft Factory is being put in charge of the company," reports that Kazan resident Yuri Abrosimov has a chance to write himself into history as the youngest head of Tupolev, after Andrei Nikolaevich himself, who founded the Design Bureau at the age of 34. The condition is that if he manages to overcome the threshold of the status, Acting Alexander Bobryshev leaves the post of Managing Director of JSC Tupolev just one year and one month after his appointment. The reason is unknown. At the same time, Eduard Sorkin wrote a statement: a year ago, he responded to Bobryshev's call for aviation industry veterans to return and began reviving the Kazan branch of the Tupolev Design Bureau. The correspondent of BUSINESS Online tried to figure out what all this means.
The ceremony of receiving the Tu-214 aircraft certificate of Approval for the main modification of the standard design in the workshop of the Kazan Aviation Plant named after S.P. Gorbunov, a branch of JSC Tupolev (as part of PJSC United Aircraft Corporation). Kazan, 12/27/2025 (c) PJSC United Aircraft Corporation
The Directors' Sprint
There is another change of managing director at Tupolev: in the coming days, Yuri Abrosimov will be appointed as the new head (while in acting status). This was reported by several BUSINESS Online sources in the aviation industry. Thus, Alexander Bobryshev lasted only 1 year and 1 month. Nevertheless, the "high-speed" record of his predecessor Konstantin Timofeev remained unbeaten: the latter worked for 10 months. It turns out that this world-famous company has already become the 7th chief executive in 11 years: before Timofeev, Bobryshev and Abrosimov were Nikolai Savitskikh (2014-2016), Alexander Konyukhov (2016-2020), Ronis Sharipov (2020-2021), Vadim Korolev (2021-2024).
Bobryshev was appointed to Tupolev during a major change of power in the UAC - the resignations of Director General Yuri Slyusar and his deputy for civil Aviation, Managing Director of Yakovlev Andrey Boginsky. His arrival was greeted with a fair amount of optimism: the appointment to such a post of a man who has gone through the entire career ladder in the aviation industry - from an assembly fitter to the head of an aircraft manufacturing company, is, alas, a rarity nowadays. I thought: suddenly they decided to revive the professional management of the industry? In addition, Bobryshev had experience in managing Tupolev specifically - in 2009-2014, and in March - December 2013, he also headed the Gorbunov KAPO in parallel (today the Kazan Aircraft Factory is a branch of Tupolev, KAZ; it is noteworthy that during this 10-year period in the workshops of Alexander Petrovich remembered with a kind word). Plus, it is believed that he always has his own position.
Alexander Bobryshev. Brief biography
Alexander Petrovich Bobryshev was born on January 8, 1949 in Novokuznetsk. After graduating from the Novosibirsk Aviation College in 1969, he joined the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant (today the Novosibirsk Aviation Production Association named after Chkalov). In the same year, he was called up to serve in the Armed Forces of the USSR. In 1971, he returned to the factory.
In 1978, he graduated from the Aircraft Engineering Faculty of the Novosibirsk Electrotechnical Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering. Until 1995, he consistently held the positions of process engineer, head of the Technological bureau, Deputy head of the workshop, head of the workshop, head of the Department of Labor and Wages, Deputy Director of Production, Deputy General Director of the NAPO. Chkalov. In 1995, he was appointed First Deputy General Director of NAPO, Director of the aviation plant. In 1997-2006, he was the General Director of NAPO.
In May 2006, he was appointed a member of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation.
In September 2009, he was appointed president (and since 2012 - CEO) of Tupolev. At the same time, in March -December 2013, he was in charge of the Gorbunov KAPO. He resigned from both posts in 2014.
In 2014-2015, he was the General Director of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC). Since 2015, he has been Vice-President, Director of the Aviation Equipment Maintenance Department of the State Aviation; Deputy General Director of the UAC for State Defense and Program Management of Operational and Tactical Aviation.
On November 25, 2024, he was appointed Managing Director of Tupolev.
It is impossible to say anything like that about Abrosimov. He's from Kazan. He was born on July 23, 1988. He is an economist by education (presumably, the Faculty of Management, Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship at KNRTU-KAI). Almost immediately, he got into a senior position - deputy deputy director for Finance and Economics of the Kazan branch of the Tupolev Design Bureau (the company's name changed several times, but in Tupolev circles it is customary to call it KFKB). It was Lev Golts then. It is claimed that the latter clearly patronized Abrosimov. When the branch was liquidated (2014), Golts was appointed KAZ's director of economics and finance, and he took his deputy with him. After the death of the boss (October 21, 2020), Abrosimov took his place. In 2023, Korolev hired him as Deputy Managing Director for Economics and Finance at Tupolev.
"There are no logical explanations for the appointment," says one of the sources. - Only 37 years old, a purely desk worker, an economist, not an aircraft manufacturer. Perhaps he just happened to be in the right place - there are a lot of such appointments in Moscow, and he definitely won't ask unnecessary questions. Of course, the Tatars could also play: Yura is already in the center of events, let's support him, let's try for the third time (meaning the appointments of Sharipov and Timofeev - editor's note)." By the way, it turns out that Abrosimov is the youngest head of Tupolev in their entire history - of course, after Andrei himself Nikolayevich Tupolev, who created and headed the Design Bureau in 1922, i.e. at the age of 34.
"He is adequate, sociable, humorous, knows how to find an approach to people," another of our interlocutors characterizes Abrosimova. - And it's not easy: it says a lot that in the current conditions he has lasted so long in such positions. I think it was not without family influence." This means that Abrosimov is the grandson of Yuri Litvinov (1939-2021), who led KAZ from February 1994 to June 1996, i.e. he was the first director after Vitaly Kopylov. By the way, it was under Litvinov's leadership that the first Tu-214 was built (it took off on March 21, 1996). His early retirement surprised the team. According to the testimonies of those involved in those events, the following can be said: at that time, the Tatarstan authorities finally decided to make KAZ, so to speak, closer to the republic, but with Kopylov's direct heir, this was impossible, so it was necessary to change the director. And Litvinov was offered an offer from the category of those who do not refuse.…
What is the reason (and whether it exists) for Bobryshev's resignation has not yet been explained. However, there was no explanation for other recent dismissals, or rather, the wording proposed to the public did not clarify the question of why specific managers were replaced. It turns out that Slyusar has been promoted, i.e. there are no complaints against him - he has managed (now he is the governor of the Rostov region). Boginsky's resignation was allegedly demanded by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin for the failure of civilian programs. Timofeev, according to sources, immediately disliked the new CEO of UAC Vadim Badekha.
And how to perceive the rate of fire of a change of company directors? "It looks like agony: so far, it's Tupolev," Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, succinctly commented on the situation for BUSINESS Online. - I have to repeat once again: "And you, friends, no matter how you sit down, you're still not fit to be a musician." "Please note that we do not have time to monitor the personnel changes that are taking place in the leadership of the UAC itself," one of the sources recommended. - What is the reason for this? First of all, with the fact that things are not going well."
"Bobryshev was supposed to revive the production of the Tu-214, but he did not, even with the support of Minnikhanov," Honored pilot of Russia Yuri Sytnik said in an interview with BUSINESS Online. "Could he?" We have a problem with component manufacturing companies. These one and a half hundred factories that were destroyed at one time are not being restored at a click. Is it necessary to revive the construction of the Tu-214? Sure. Sooner or later, officials will realize that there is nothing else - the MC-21 will be delivered only in 5-8 years, and during this time imported aircraft will be at the fence ... Aircraft manufacturing bosses make promises: "1 thousand aircraft by 2030." We produce 40 engines a year - what a thousand planes! What's left? Shuffle the directors. Okay, at least now Badeha doesn't make promises.… On the other hand, I don't rule out that Bobryshev was removed precisely because it started to work out. But no matter how hard some guys try, the Tupolev company is alive and retains its face - thanks to the groundwork created by the great organizer of production Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev, thanks to the fact that Tupolev is a long-range and strategic aviation."
Age? Disrupting the plan? A protest?..
It is difficult to say what Bobryshev succeeded and failed in a year: in the aviation industry, processes are stretched over time, and therefore it is difficult to understand what a particular leader did and what was done under him. Probably, it is necessary to talk about the totality of the reasons that led to the resignation.
First. Bobryshev turned 76 on January 8. It can be assumed that at such an age it is quite difficult to pull the exorbitant load of a company mired in problems. According to our sources, KAZ is completely under manual control, even basic issues are not resolved without the participation of the head of Tu. In addition, when appointed, Bobryshev retained the post of deputy general Director of the UAC for state defense order and program management of tactical aviation (I wonder how you can combine two such positions?). Attention was also paid to the age aspect when Bobryshev was appointed - they say, where to go if there are simply no young leaders who understand the aircraft industry (a generation gap plus a personnel policy that implies pushing their people up). "I think age is one of the main reasons for retirement," Stanislav Ryzhakov, former director of the Ulyanovsk branch of Tupolev, suggested in an interview with BUSINESS Online. - And there is no one to replace it. The change of directors is a sore point for Rostec, because there is no powerful technical team from which to train specialists capable of managing the industry."
The second one. The power option. The heads of defense enterprises are always under attack due to the likelihood of non-fulfillment of the state defense order. It is not known how to deal with this on KAZ. In addition, we do not know what conclusions were drawn based on the results of the inspection conducted at the plant in 2025 by the Prosecutor General's Office.
Third. Failure of the plan for the Tu-214. KAZ was supposed to hand over three aircraft. As a result, we received only one, and from the reserve of 2019, i.e. the car was built under Konyukhov, Sharipov, Korolev, Timofeev and Bobryshev. On December 16, 2025, the new Tu-214 took off in full. In addition, it is the first certified import-substituted liner in the Russian Federation. Success? Undoubtedly. But they started building the aircraft under Timofeev, and with him they raised a flying laboratory to test systems of domestic production.… Did someone seriously believe that Bobryshev would miraculously solve all the problems and hand over three planes?
The fourth. It was not possible to convince the airline that by ordering the Tu-214, they would receive the planes. According to sources, S7 is still considering the "Tu" as its main type in the future. In September 2024, the carrier and the UAC signed an agreement on 100 aircraft. According to our interlocutors, the matter did not reach the contract because the owner of S7 Vladislav Filev is afraid of flying over: he will invest money, but the plant will not do it. An example before my eyes. The only airline that ordered (and paid for) the Tu-214, YUVT Aero, did not receive its planes. As a result, Tatneft, which owns the carrier, filed lawsuits against Tupolev for almost 18 billion rubles, 11.7 billion of them under Bobryshev. By the way, 2025 was probably a record year for Tu in terms of money potentially lost in arbitration, and this is not just the story of the YWT: in June, the Ministry of Defense filed a lawsuit for 930 million; in May, the court partially satisfied (the amount is not called) the almost 3 billion claim of the military.… As a result, YUVT decided to purchase the IL-114 and SJ-100. For Tupolev and KAZ, this is a reputational blow, but Bobryshev did not take the money and make promises. And by the way, the question is: what did these 18 billion go to? If it was for production needs, then why wasn't the money returned with the receipt of funds from the state? It was officially announced that until 2023, 12 billion rubles were allocated to Tupolev for the Tu-214 program, and after that - another 83.6 billion. Or was it not allocated?
The fifth alleged reason smacks of romanticism, but still... we mentioned above that Bobryshev is considered a leader with his position. His dismissal from Tupolev in 2014 was attributed to disagreement with the policy of the then head of the KLA Mikhail Poghosyan. It was said that they radically differed in their views on the future of the plant and Tu. And what did we hear at the end of 2025? Anton Alikhanov, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, said that from 2028 the plant will reach the rate of 20 Tu-214 per year (we note that Rustam Minnikhanov, RAIS of the Republic of Tatarstan, also spoke about 20 aircraft at a New Year's Eve meeting with the press, but did not name the dates). As a production worker, Bobryshev cannot but understand the dubiousness of such plans and hardly wants to be involved in them. By the way, we note that industrial bosses have become more cautious about making promises for the near future. "Next year we are already reaching the rate of 8 units of potential production, in 2027 - by 12," Alikhanov said about the Tu-214 program. "Unit of potential production" is a good formulation.
The sixth. One of Bobryshev's main ideas has stalled - the restoration of the KFKB, which, among other things, was a kind of guarantor of production quality. The project was approved, but according to sources, almost nothing has progressed in a year. As a result, Eduard Sorkin, who agreed to head the branch again (he responded to the cry of Bobryshev and KAZ director Zufar Mirgalimov to return to veterans), according to our information, wrote a letter of resignation. There is an opinion that he is leaving because he came specifically under Bobryshev, but having an idea of who Sorkin is, it is difficult to imagine that he can just give up the cause for which he has been fighting for a long time. According to our information, Eduard Matveyevich will remain at Tupolev as an adviser to help the new director of the branch.
A full-fledged director or statistician?
It is generally clear what legacy Abrosimov inherits in Kazan, as well as the fact that the modernization of KAZ (planned to be completed by the end of 2025) does not solve problems by itself: it is primarily about personnel and their qualifications. Of course, the new managing director will be assisted by Minnikhanov, who, according to our information, did not just resign from the board of directors of Tupolev, but received a seat on a similar body of the UAC. Perhaps now he will have more opportunities in the field of the aviation industry, and if, during the upcoming reform of the UAC, factories are separated from design bureaus, then this is the only way to influence the situation. Our interlocutors in the industry are talking about this type of corporate transformation. According to their information, the new civil directorate of the UAC will be assembled by combining Tupolev, Ilyushin and Beriev under the management of Yakovlev. Therefore, of course, there is great hope that Minnikhanov will be able to influence the establishment of KAZ's relations with cooperative enterprises.
Further. Despite the fact that today the primary task is to promote the construction of the Tu-214 in its current form, Abrosimov needs to create a base for improving the aircraft, otherwise its mass assembly in the current conditions seems impossible.
Another extremely important task is the contract with S7. On the website of RAISA RT, there is a video from the New Year's Eve event at KAZ, where Alikhanov says: "Today we held another round of negotiations with potential buyers of the Tu-214. There are a number of agreements. I hope that we will come to some kind of result. For now, we are aiming for the first quarter of next year, and the agreement will be turned into a real contract." According to one of our interlocutors, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade was referring to Filev. The owner of S7 attended the event, said that he did not consider the MS-21, knew about the disadvantages of the Tu-214, but was ready to buy it, and asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Federal Air Transport Agency to work out a mechanism for acquiring the airliner so that at current prices and rates the airline would not go down the drain. Filev, as one of the non-systemic ideologists of the air transport industry, is a very strong ally in the fight for the future of the Tu-214. "He is fantastically professional in everything related to aviation," the source believes. - Not just an operator, but knows the planes inside and out. You can put him in any position in the industry."
Is Abrosimov able to do all this? "Yuri is a young man, active, competent as a financial manager, but not an engineer," says Ryzhakov. - Will he be able to overcome himself to become a technician? Tupolev needs a leader who knows how to manage the production process, and this is more than a financier. Not everyone can move from one stage to another."
But there is an opinion that Abrosimov will not need such qualities: firstly, it is not a fact that he will become a managing director from acting, and secondly, even if he does, his role will be formal. The reason is the aforementioned reform of the UAC. According to sources, this issue is almost resolved, and if Tupolev is reduced to the status of an appendage of the UAC, the head of the production site will play a key role. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Abrosimov and Mirgalimov do not fully perceive each other. In general, strained relations between manufacturers and financiers are not uncommon within the same company, but in this case something else is clearly happening. By the way, Mirgalimov's directorship has been hanging by a thread for the past few months, but according to our interlocutors, the case was eventually decided in his favor. If anything, he will be skinned for 20 aircraft in 2028, and for "potential production units" already today.
On the part of bmpd, we would like to add that on January 13, 2026, PJSC United Aircraft Corporation (PJSC UAC) issued a press release stating that in 2025, the United Aircraft Corporation of Rostec State Corporation successfully completed record plans for the supply of military equipment under the State Defense Order (GOZ). Alexander Petrovich Bobryshev was responsible for the work of this area in the corporation, combining the positions of Deputy General Director of PJSC UAC for Operational and Tactical Aviation (OTA) and GOZ, as well as Managing Director of JSC Tupolev. After completing the assigned tasks, he leaves the corporation.
Since January 13, Vladimir Yefimov, who previously held the post of first deputy of the department, has been appointed director of the UAC-OTA branch. He graduated from the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation. Since 2012, he has been working in the UAC in various positions.
Also, since January 13, Yuri Abrosimov, who previously held the post of Deputy Managing Director for Economics and Finance at the company, has been assigned the duties of Managing Director of JSC Tupolev. In 2010, he graduated from Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev and in the same year began working in the structures of JSC Tupolev.
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Yuri Abrosimov (left) has been appointed Acting Managing Director of JSC Tupolev (c) vk.com/uac_rus
